Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid
by doctorspockable
Summary: This is a set of short ficlets, inspired by Craig's rant to the Doctor in the Series 5 episode "The Lodger". Each chapter is based on a different sentence. Enjoy :)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: Goodbye Isn't All Sad...**

_John... John.  
_He honestly never thought he would spend his last days here, in this house. Daleks seemed terrifying on the surface, but this was so much harder for him to handle. He knew he couldn't spend the rest of his days alone...  
His walls were covered in photographs of his loving wife and children, from around 2020... before the accident. It was cruel, how he could take Rose halfway around the universe and back without a scratch, but then once they were settled back on Earth she was snatched away by a careless drunk driver.  
Jackie had been inconsolable; she'd locked herself in her bedroom for days, refusing to eat, grieving for the daughter she'd thought was safe at home once again.

It was Jack and Donna he had wept for, though.

Barely started in the world... Jack had been eight, Donna six.

Sometimes it was for the best.

These days, however, he sat buried in his memories of long, long ago. How old he truly was weighed down on his shoulders, even if he didn't look it.  
His youngest, Sarah, had been fortunate enough to escape the crash that took the lives of her mother and siblings. She was his world.  
It was she who sat next to him on that fateful December night and held his hand, long after all his people had gone. He wasn't afraid though. After all, everything has its' own time, and so everything comes to pass.  
And so John Smith, the one who had once been known as the Doctor, came to pass.  
_The Universe welcomed him home with open arms._


	2. Chapter 2

**_AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter! Sorry this took so long, it wasn't quite what I had in mind to start off with but I think it works now. Enjoy :)_  
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**Chapter Two: Meow - Noun, Verb, Adjective.**

The Doctor looked over at Beatrix and grinned. The teenager had followed him down to the barn, where a litter of kittens were being bathed by their mother. She bent over and picked one up, laughing as it tried to swat her nose.  
"Oh, you're definitely a cat person."  
"I beg your pardon?"  
"Sorry – thinking out loud. I try not to do that, but it doesn't always work..." He cleared his throat and looked around.  
"What are you looking for?"  
"We have a problem. Or at least, this cat does. One of her kittens has run off, but she can't leave the others to find him."  
"How on Earth did you find that out?"  
"I speak cat."  
"Don't be ridiculous, nobody can speak 'cat'".  
The Doctor chuckled and whispered in her ear, "I guess I must be nobody then. Come on."  
He turned his back on Beatrix stunned expression and started the long trek back up to the main house.

Beatrix found him a while later, his head stuck up a chimney and his shoulders covered in soot and ash from the fireplace.  
"Almost got him... almost..." he muttered.  
"Got who, may I ask?"  
The Doctor knocked the back of his head on the fireplace in surprise; he hadn't heard Beatrix enter the room.  
"You remember the kitten we were looking for...?" he started.  
"Of course."  
"I've found him."  
"Oh, that is good news! Where is the little imp?"  
"Up there," the Doctor said, pointing up the chimney he had vacated a moment ago.  
"Why would a kitten climb a chimney flue?"  
"Haven't the foggiest. I'll tell you when I catch him."  
And with that, the Doctor's head disappeared up the gap again. Beatrix settled into a comfortable chair and waited patiently for him to emerge again.  
She woke with a start as the Doctor flew backwards out of the grate, clutching the writhing kitten to his chest. A scrap of blue cloth hung over his shoulders, which the Doctor flicked away deftly while the kitten attempted to claw up his shoulder. Beatrix laughed and took charge of it, wiping it clean of soot with her apron.

"Congratulations, Doctor."  
"Don't be silly – all in a day's work. But I'd better be going now. You know, planets to visit, trees to climb... kittens to rescue from chimneys." He winked.  
Beatrix blushed as he climbed back into the TARDIS, although she didn't know why.  
It was as though he knew something about her she didn't...

That evening, she sat down to write the skeleton of a story.  
This story would one day become known as _The Tale of the Roly-Poly Pudding_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: The Three Hardest Words to Say**

The Doctor looked around the TARDIS, wondering where why it was so quiet. Then he remembered...  
Donna had to give up her memories, or lose her life. His best friend, gone in a flash of light.  
Rose had given him up for a fake. A copy with the same face, but not the same hearts. There was no way he would ever be _him_.  
Martha was happy now, at least. She and Mickey would be good for one another; the "forever alone"-rs together at last.  
Jack was flirting his way across the stars, of course. Nothing would ever change that.  
Amy and Rory were trapped in a past that didn't accept them, but he couldn't rescue them like he had so many times before. Wires like the borders of tectonic plates ran across both the physical and temporal planes of New York City, making it impossible to land the TARDIS there.

At least he still had River... but he knew even she wouldn't be around forever. They shared a glance across the console, and he sighed.  
"They loved you very much, you know. Amy especially."  
"I know. It still doesn't make it any easier."  
River sighed and fiddled with the console.  
"Shall we visit Las Vegas? Do say yes, I haven't been in ages."  
"The city or the system?"  
"What do you think, sweetie?"  
The Doctor laughed. "System it is..."  
The TARDIS departed amid a cacophony of screeching and whining, but the Doctor knew that it would be a while before his hearts left the graveyard too.  
The problem wasn't that he loved too much, or opened his hearts to just anybody.  
It was that they all loved him too much in return.  
And he destroyed them for it.


End file.
